The Simpsons:

An Imperfect Ideal Family

By Eliezer Van Allen

While my family disagrees about which television programs to watch on any given
night, we all religiously congregate on Sunday nights to watch The Simpsons. We
sit lined up on the couch, personifying the term "couch potato," our
daily lives suspended to observe the antics of an animated family. My dad laughs
at Homer Simpson's idiocy; my mom commiserates with Marge's troubles; my sisters
criticize Bart and praise Lisa, while I do the complete opposite by cheering Bart
and not caring about Lisa. After one hilarious episode, my father, in a breath
of laughter, said, "What a weird family. Who comes up with this stuff?"
I remember thinking, "Yes, they are weird. But they're just cartoons!"
Yet, the more I thought about it, the more I began to wonder if the Simpson family,
sitting on their couch at the beginning of every episode, was actually a mirror
image of my couch-dwelling family, if not a mirror image of every American family.
Were the show's writers looking at my family, or some collection of families,
to get script material for their show? Could a group of two-dimensional, four-fingered
television characters resemble my family, much less anyone else's?

The answer, surprisingly, is yes. The Simpsons, with its ability to captivate
not only my family but also many others across the country, is so popular because
viewers see a new and plausible representation of the American nuclear family
in the personages of Homer, Marge, and their kids. Unlike common representations
of the "typical" American family seen in television shows like Father
Knows Best or Leave It To Beaver, The Simpsons presents a family unit that is
all at once unique, attainable, and lovable, unlike those presented in either
of the other two shows. From the show's creators' rebellion against "traditional"
family sitcoms to each of the Simpson family member's caricatures, this show satirizes,
but ultimately redeems, each unit of the nuclear family (father, mother, and children) [1].
The Simpsons may actually reflect the way many families actually live, for better
or worse, and is thus culturally pivotal towards guiding the American nuclear
family into the future. More importantly, the show's satiric qualities can only
stretch the American family so far, as shown by the family's subtle reversion
to the traditional sitcom family form. In this sense, the sitcom still does not
entirely destroy the stereotypically ideal nuclear family, especially in view
of family gender relations and continuing male dominance in society. Viewers,
although possibly disappointed with wholly traditional familial representations,
may want the balance between blatant fantasy and stark realism that The Simpsons
ultimately gives.

Since the show's portrayal of family is in many ways unique relative to television
sitcoms of the past, one must comprehend The Simpsons's history to understand
how the show's rebellious qualities emerged, and how it is still not entirely
radical. Matt Groening, the show's creator, exemplifies his show's seemingly revolutionary
stance against the traditional sitcom family. Groening, who grew up in Portland,
Oregon during the 1960s, had an open-minded upbringing. He participated in everything
from constantly doodling cartoon figures in elementary school to attempting to
rewrite his high school's constitution to give him absolute power (Kaufman, 108).
Throughout his childhood and early adult life, Groening knew he could not be constrained
by the status quo. He once remarked, "I knew that other kids were going to
get serious and go on and be professionals I never wanted to go to an office
and carry a briefcase," (Anthony, 1). This inability to "carry a briefcase"
and conform to traditional values led Groening to the view that conventional avenues
of creativity and success could never apply to him. He had to create a new medium
to express his non-conventional nature.

Groening first manifested his rebellious style during his college life and in
his early comic, Life in Hell. Groening chose Evergreen State College for its
no grades and no exams policy, instantly reflecting his freethinking style. Groening
traced his rebellious roots to his college years, because "you study [Kierkegaard
and Nietzsche] in the winter, in a rain forest in Olympia, Washington, and you
get very moody." These "moody" feelings were first translated creatively
via Groening's Life in Hell comics. Centered on two "crudely drawn angst-filled
characters" named Jeff and Akbar, Groening attempted an "irreverent
portrayal of broken life", as he put it (Steiger, 2). He opted not to depict
a wholly idealized vision of people's daily lives in his works, a trend that would
reemerge in his next creative work, The Simpsons.

Like Groening, James L. Brooks, the show's producer, had distinctive qualities
evident in his previous television producing jobs that foreshadowed his non-conformist
work on The Simpsons. Just as the Simpson family is not comprised of hollow, stereotypical
family characters, Brooks' previous sitcom, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, also lacked
such one-dimensional individuals. Brooks described the show, which centered on
a female reporter, as being "very human." The show chronicles her various
vulnerabilities, ranging from being in a male-dominated profession to being hopelessly
single in a harsh world (Himmelstein, 157). Brooks produced a show that gave a
different glimpse of women's lives than was the norm on television of that period,
taking women out of their passive housewife spheres. He would help do the same
for families on The Simpsons several years later.

In order to understand how The Simpsons does not entirely break the traditional
family mold, one must first follow its initial broadcast history relative to other
shows on the Fox Network. The Simpson family made its first television appearance
as an animated short on Fox's Tracey Ullman Show in 1987, the same year that another
show centered around family, Married... With Children premiered on the new television
network. While The Simpsons portrays a more realistic view of the American family
than had previously been shown on television, when compared to Married... With
Children's Bundy family, the Simpson clan retains some traditionally wholesome
family images. The Bundy family, explains television critic Gerard Jones, "strips
the sentiment from sitcoms and lets the bile pour out. It wins its audience over
by shouting, in sitcom form, that sitcoms are a lie," (Jones, 266). Unlike
in The Simpsons, there is absolutely no "sentiment" in the Bundy family,
who in fact present the argument that all sitcoms, and thus all sitcom families,
"are a lie." The Bundy family, with all of their "bile," stopped
airing during the mid-1990s, while The Simpsons in September 1999 entered its
11th strong season as an independent show. The broadcast history and eventual
popularity contrasts between the two shows indicate that the Simpson family is
not completely rebellious, like the Bundy's, but instead retains enough elements
of family tradition and reflects its viewers' desires for traces of familial fantasy.

Nevertheless, once Groening, Brooks, and the show's staff began creating thirty-minute
episodes in 1989, The Simpsons received harsh criticisms for its portrayal of
family life that continue to this day. Many critics cite shows like Father Knows
Best, which aired on prime-time television from 1955 to 1963 and which depicts
the Anderson family as the model social unit for American society, as appropriate
material for American families to watch on television. In this show, the father
is the intelligent ruler and moneymaker; the wife is her husband's "ornament"
and is the person who cleans the house; while the kids are obedient and maturing
(Jones, 97-102). Likewise, family members never scream at one another and problems
are always solved sensibly and according to parental wisdom (Himmelstein, 125-126).
The title itself, explaining that the father "knows best," summarizes
the show's depiction of a traditional male-dominated familial sphere. The Simpsons
critics have thus argued that such families should set the example for viewers
to follow.

Conversely, to some, The Simpsons, in trying to represent the American family,
is totally off the mark. When criticizing the Simpson family, many people turn
to Bart, the son, as the greatest corrupter of the American familial ideal. Bart
does not obey his parents, do his homework, or clean his room. His motto, "underachiever
and proud of it," made its way out of the mouths and onto the shirts of kids
across the country during the shows early years on television. Parents and school
administrators nationwide have explained that Bart's disrespectful thoughts and
actions are hardly what American children should use as a model (Jones, 267).
Bart does not convey the attitudes and beliefs, from parental submission to educational
dedication, which parents hope to instill in their television watching and susceptible
children, thus making him a target for criticism about child raising. He is a
"hell-raising" prankster, having committed crimes ranging from petty
vandalism to international fraud that are used by critics to validate such a claim.
Bart is "every authority figure's nightmare," and thus a seemingly terrible
role model for impressionable children (Steiger, 7).

Similarly, Homer is the target of criticism for those looking for parental role
models on television. People focus their attention on his idiocy and indifference
as his main faults. For instance, when advising Bart about his difficulties with
playing the guitar, Homer does not give supportive tips and provide a role model
for his son to follow. Instead, he simply remarks, "If something's hard to
do, then it's not worth doing," (Aucoin, C1). Homer's attitudes are considered
atypical and not ones that would normally be expected of a father, resulting in
criticism of Homer and his non-respected place in the Simpson family. In fact,
U.S. Congressman Joseph Pitts in 1999 blamed Homer Simpson for contributing to
the decline of fatherhood in America (Anthony, 3), emphasizing that Homer is perceived
as a terrible model for parents. Senator Pitts' negative comments embody Homer's
status as a focus of criticism for The Simpsons.

Despite these condemnations about the Simpson family's imperfections and dysfunctional
nature, their shortcomings and general realism are what actually make this family
so reflective of the American family and actually radical in the wake of television
families of the past. The Simpsons is initially so appealing because each segment
of the family tears apart past sitcom family representations and exposes how unrealistic
those representations were. First, within the sitcom structure, the most dominant
figure in past sitcom families has been the father, and it is the father who has
been most altered to fit into this new familial image. Families in past sitcoms
have presented a relatively standard image of the traditional American father
as the all knowing, respected, and moral authority. For example, Jim Anderson,
the father in Father Knows Best, is the breadwinner, family decision maker, and
overall leader of the family, as the show's title states (Jones, 97). More recently,
Cliff Huxtable, the father in The Cosby Show program that aired from 1984 until
the early 1990s, has replicated these traditional images. Television critics have
described Cliff as "the impeccable father" of the family (Steiger, 4),
underlying his fatherly stature. Fathers around the country are expected to view
these fantasy depictions of the dad as terms of reference that are attainable
and expected.

Groening, however, worries that "millions of Americans think that a good-humored,
intelligent father can solve all the problems in a family," (Steiger, 4);
he knows that this is not the case and such fathers do not even remotely represent
reality. To counter these traditional images of the father, Groening presents
us with Homer Simpson, a modern-day "Everyman" who, through his imperfections,
contributes to the show's overall creation of the new American family. Homer lacks
intelligence and any measurable skills, and has been depicted as an average loser.
For instance, at his high school reunion, he won awards for "most weight
gained", "most improved odor", "most hair lost", and
"lowest-paying job", (Steiger, 4-5).

Through a close examination of a pivotal episode, entitled "A Streetcar Named
Marge", Homer's imperfections truly shine. For example, after Marge discusses
her plans to participate in a play, Homer chastises Bart for asking her a ridiculous
question about the play. He then outdoes Bart by asking immediately afterwards,
"Is there any frontal nudity?", which is an utterly idiotic first question
to ask about a spouse's theatrical endeavors. More foolishly, Homer responds to
Marge's plea to be supportive of her participation in the play by explaining,
"I don't care I can't fake an interest in this, and I'm an expert at
faking an interest in your kooky projects." Unlike the restrained and moralistic
Jim Anderson of Father Knows Best or the supportive Cliff Huxtable of The Cosby
Show, Homer Simpson is an unaware hedonist, indulging in his own passions at the
expense of his spouse's and kids' feelings. In fact, he blatantly admits to not
caring about his wife's "kooky" activities. Homer's actions satirize
the golden images of Jim Anderson and Cliff Huxtable, the all-knowing and entirely
family-oriented fathers of sitcom past.

One could argue that Homer is the next father in the line of middle class unsophisticated
fathers like Ralph Kramden of The Honeymooners, which aired during the 1950s,
and Archie Bunker of All In The Family, which aired during the 1970s. These characters
are sitcom fathers of blue-collar families; they are not privileged with middle-class
status, as are the Andersons and the Huxtables. As a result of their working-class
lives, Kramden and Bunker are depicted, as described in a study on television
families done by the National Institute of Mental Health in 1979, as fathers who
"are laughed at by the rest of the world," (Gunter and Svennevig, 37).
Homer too, like Kramden and Bunker before him, is mocked for his idiocy in dealing
with Marge's acting dreams. Thus, in a sheer satiric sense, Homer does follow
in Ralph's and Archie's paths, characters created for the audience "to cheer
at [their] weekly humiliation," (Jones, 207). Homer initially supports the
stereotype of the working-class father as incompetent when compared to middle
or upper class father idealizations.

However, Homer is more complex than the stereotypical blue-collar bumbling idiot
of a father he is portrayed as being. Despite Homer's seemingly idiotic and uncaring
attitudes that fall in line with those of Ralph Kramden or Archie Bunker, ultimately
he is accepted to symbolize the new American father for all classes. In the same
episode, after watching Marge's play, Homer sadly commiserates with Marge's character.
He laments, "The poor thing [Blanche Du Bois] gets hauled to the nuthouse
when all she needed was for that big slob to show her some respect." Homer,
"that big slob", ultimately recognizes his own foolishness in a surprisingly
mature and endearing way, and his wife thus rewards him with a forgiving kiss.
He gets into a lot of trouble on many occasions, but he is more than anything
else a faithful husband and father, making him the latest figure in the evolution
of the father on television: a man wholly imperfect but still ultimately loved
and capable of giving love. As psychiatrist Dr. Will Miller explains, "Homer
is as much of a butthead today as he was in the first episode, and millions of
people can relate to that, because they too had [or are] an imperfect parent,"
(Aucoin, C1). He presents an image that any father can attain, rather than the
impossible ideals portrayed in shows like Father Knows Best or the disrespectful
attitudes displayed in shows like The Honeymooners, possibly reflecting a social
desire from people for realistic characters that are not perfect but not completely
hopeless.

Even so, Homer does ultimately revert to the traditional fatherly role as the
domineering husband, emphasizing how the show's satire of fatherly figures can
only partially succeed in shattering old father images. The fact that Marge ultimately
redeems Homer, besides validating the notion of an imperfect husband and father,
also reflects how Homer continually regains the family's respect and dominates
the family environment. Like Cliff and Jim before him, Homer is the patriarch
even if he does not have their other "impeccable" traits. Homer, and
not any other character in the Simpson family, is "who drives the show,"
and thus the show's family (MacGregor, 27). Since Homer is such a "big slob,"
one might conclude that the show is actually satirizing the patriarchal system.
However, by not providing any attainable alternative family structure, The Simpsons
still reinforces this male-dominated environment and thus reverts to traditional
familial visions.

Marge too, like Homer, does not fit the mold of the traditional female housewife
as has been portrayed in the past on television, but still partially retains aspects
of the traditional submissive wife. First, women traditionally have been depicted
as solely concerned with household tasks: cooking, cleaning and raising children,
relegating most authority to their male counterpart (Gunter and Svennevig, 35).
This representation is evident in many shows, most notably in Leave It To Beaver,
which originally aired from 1957 until 1963, and this show's housewife, June Cleaver.
For instance, while talking with her husband about her day, June explains, "Well,
I started to read the paper. I found that sewing was much more restful,"
(Himmelstein, 131). Comments such as these results in a collective portrayal of
women like June as kitchen-dwelling intellectual outcasts, since June would rather
sew than deal with the mentally exhausting newspaper.

Through different devices, Marge mostly shatters this traditional image of women
as shown on television, representing a new role of the American housewife within
the nuclear family structure. First, through the use of satire, Marge destroys
the passive housewife symbolized by June Cleaver. In the opening scene of the
"A Streetcar Named Marge" episode, Marge explains to Homer, " I
spend all day home with Maggie. Sometimes it's like I don't even exist,"
to which Homer, eyes fixed on the television, robotically responds with, "Sounds
interesting." This satiric view of Marge as the non-existent child caretaker,
complete with a complaining wife and an indifferent husband, promotes the absurdity
of the invisible housewife reflected in Leave It To Beaver and other shows. Through
this sarcastic scene, the show indicates that a real housewife should be respected
and not ignored. Similarly, in a moment of irony during play rehearsal, Marge
comments, "I just don't see why Blanche should shove a broken bottle in Stanley's
face. Couldn't she just take his abuse with gentle good humor?" Marge is
satirizing her own submissive position in the family relative to Homer, her husband,
by trying to take the abuse of a controlling male figure with "gentle good
humor," an action in line with the traditional wives of TV past. She cannot
comprehend the thought of repelling the male "abuse" with significant
and lasting action, represented by shoving "a broken bottle" in the
male's face. Again, the satire of Marge's passivity in this situation allows viewers
to realize the absurdity of such stereotypically submissive housewives.

Moreover, as evidenced in a close reading of "Bart Sells His Soul",
another episode, Marge undermines the mothering typical among television moms.
Before a nervous Bart can fully confess to his mom that he sold his soul, Marge
interrupts him and explains, "A mother can always tell [what the problem
is] Hmm. It's not fear of nuclear war It's not swim-test anxiety. It
almost feels like you're missing something something important." When
Bart mentions his soul as a possible answer to her question, Marge chuckles, "Aw,
honey, you're not a monster." Marge tries to use her motherly instincts,
a trait propagated by the likes of June Cleaver, to help her son. She not only
fails to let Bart express his inner fears, but she also unknowingly calls him
a "monster," making Bart feel even more hideous because of his actions.
Her failure to help Bart satirizes the image of an all-purpose mom, propagated
by the likes of June Cleaver, who can understand and help her children at all
times no matter what issue is at hand. Unlike the old representations of mothers
as one-dimensional and perpetually cheery, Marge is, as Groening explained in
an interview, "long-suffering" as an imperfect housewife (Mason, B7).
Marge's "suffering" under the shadow of such all-purpose moms may reflect
society's faulty treatment of women and mothers, since no woman can attain the
level of perfection upheld by June Cleaver and other television moms.

Despite Marge's satire of the cheery woman in the true shackles of the housewife
role, complementary to the situation with Homer, she also ultimately redeems the
image of the mother relative to the American nuclear family. While past television
moms do not venture far from the kitchen, Marge is socially active outside the
house. In the "A Streetcar Named Marge" episode, Marge emerges from
the doldrums of housework and childcare to take the leading role in a musical
rendition of the play, "A Streetcar Named Desire". As social critic
Richard Corliss explains, Marge has "achieved quite a bit," specifically
mentioning her role in the play, despite her seemingly stagnant position as housewife
(Corliss, 77). Rather than simply putting down June Cleaver's housewife image,
Marge outlines a new model for women in similar positions on how to live their
lives: they may be caretakers, but they can and should expand their horizons through
social activity. Marge represents a shift for the housewife position in the familial
structure to that of an intelligent and active woman who would rather read the
paper than sew.

Even so, as with Homer, Marge cannot completely stretch the housewife role to
that of an independent, freethinking woman, but instead still retains certain
domesticating aspects that leave her in line with June Cleaver. Again, in "A
Streetcar Named Marge," Marge initially condemns Homer for his indifferent
and hurtful attitude towards her social endeavor, but faithfully returns to the
"big slob" with a loving and forgiving kiss. Her satiric condemnation
of Homer's "abuse" ultimately collapses as she faithfully returns to
his side. In this sense, Marge reverts authority to the family patriarch, following
the same pattern as June Cleaver. Her behavior demonstrates that the show's depiction
of the housewife does not entirely break prior sitcoms' traditionally defined
submissive role, even if Marge is not the one-dimensional June Cleaver. Similarly,
her eventual expression of love for Homer propagates the television family stereotype
of perpetual love among family members. Marge is never furious with Homer for
a long time, showing how her actions falls in line with those of older television
families like the Andersons, who have continual and "palpable affection for
one another," (Jones, 98). By eventually reverting to a traditional female
role, Marge supports the notion that viewers, although desiring more real familial
representations, still long for some semblance of tradition in family television
characters that reinforce their society's older ideals.

Just as The Simpsons portrays the new American parents in comparison to those
of the past, it also conveys attitudes about children that replace those from
older programs. Since the most publicized and controversial Simpson child is Bart,
it would be appropriate to begin a discussion of the children by focusing upon
the standard male child in the sitcom family. According to a study of families
on prime-time television done by Thomas Skill and Samuel Wallace of the University
of Dayton , boys "in all family settings [are] most likely to escalate conflict.
Denying argument validity, attacking the motives of another, and disparaging [other
people] were the most frequent strategies used by them," (Bryant, 160). Bud,
the son in Father Knows Best, exemplifies this description and even expands beyond
these. For instance, he runs away from his family in one episode, creating the
typical conflict in the family. However, through the efforts of his father, Bud
happily returns home and, notably, never runs away again (Jones, 99). His problems
are perfectly solved, and the fleetingly defiant son joyfully returns to his home.

For Bart Simpson, the son in the Simpson family, rebellion is a primary character
trait, but his multi-dimensional aspects are what make him a metaphor for the
new American family's male child. As demonstrated by the criticism over Bart's
actions, he is rebellious, spouting out phrases like "Eat my shorts!"
and "Don't have a cow, man!" to authority figures ranging from his school
principal to his parents (Steiger, 7). Furthermore, in the "Bart Sells His
Soul" episode, Bart raises rebellion to a new degree first by distributing
sacrilegious rock and roll music in lieu of an opening hymn at church. He then
sells his soul by writing "Bart Simpson's Soul" on a piece of paper
and handing it to a friend for five dollars. Bart is blatantly rebelling against
the Church, a prominent social institution in his town, and demonstrating how
his initial actions fall in line with conflict-creating sons of sitcom past.

Bart definitely is more than a one-dimensional sitcom child. He is, as Richard
Corliss explains, "a complex weave of grace, attitude and personality, deplorable
and adorable," (Steiger, 7). Bart, while rebellious, is still as insecure
as many children are in real life, making him both "deplorable and adorable."
In the same episode, after having doubts about his soul, Bart becomes terribly
worried about his life and soul, and desperately seeks their return. At his bedside
and crying, Bart whimpers to God, " I'm afraid. I'm afraid some
weirdo's got my soul and I don't know what they're doing to it I hope you
can hear this." His admission of being "afraid" is hardly what
one would expect from a seemingly defiant and "hell-raising" boy. Bart
exhibits a wide range of emotions, from rebellion and annoyance to fear and loneliness,
thus making him more "real" than the one-dimensional son, Bud Anderson.
Bart is, therefore, a representation of the new American child, an individual
always striving for independence but perpetually insecure.

Lisa Simpson too, like Bart, promotes a different aspect of the multi-dimensional
nature of children not seen in past television families. She partially follows
the traditional daughter role, but also expresses insecurities and doubts that
make her, an animated figure, more real than daughters of television past. Again,
within the context of Father Knows Best, the daughter, Princess, becomes the forerunner
for representations of daughters on television. Princess, whose name even sparks
images of passivity and one-dimensionality, many times tries to break out of feeling
ordinary. For her, becoming non-ordinary means performing generally superficial
actions that are commonly associated with her looks or personality. For instance,
during an "ordinary" moment, Princess enters and wins a movie star look-alike
contest, only to abuse her looks and impersonate the real star. Despite committing
what television critic Gerard Jones calls "the family sitcom sin of sins:
pretending to be what she is not," Princess is always lovingly recovered
by her family (Jones, 98-99). Princess reflects the common representation of daughters
on television as shallow and one-sided beings, usually de-emphasized to highlight
other characters on family shows.

Rather than follow this mold, Lisa shatters such images of the daughter within
the nuclear family and replaces them with an intelligent, but insecure image of
what a daughter can be. Described by many sources as "the overachiever"
and "bookish", Lisa supposedly reflects the "superego" of
the American child, suggesting her portrayal as the ideal child (MacGregor, 27).
From one angle, she is like television daughters from the past: by making use
of her intelligence, she is trying to avoid the supposed stigma of normalcy. In
the "Bart Sells His Soul" episode, Lisa deceptively mocks Bart when
asking for mercy for everyone's soul and excluding Bart in the process. Besides
merely annoying Bart, Lisa is attempting to overshadow his presence with her wit
about his sensitive side, thus transcending any commonness she might be feeling.

In spite of her apparent attempts at superiority, Lisa moves away from the common
representations of the daughter ultimately by helping fellow family members with
her intelligence and displaying her own insecurities. Unlike Princess or other
television daughters, Lisa is first of all actually demonstrating intelligence.
Her use of her intellect shatters the image of the prissy, non-intellectual television
schoolgirl destined to follow in June Cleaver's footsteps. Similarly, Lisa ultimately
uses her intelligence to support her less sophisticated, but loved, family. Princess,
on the other hand, uses her family to support her individual superficial emotions.
With her own money, Lisa buys back Bart's soul, the piece of paper Bart wrote
on, for him to have once again, an act both kind and real.

In another shift from the Princess' of the past, Lisa also uses her ingenuity
to become a socially and politically active young woman, hardly the quiet and
submissive daughter that has commonly been portrayed in the past. For instance,
after winning a contest, Lisa in one episode is supposed to give a patriotic speech
about the American government. First, by simply entering and winning contests
based on social and political awareness, Lisa immediately contrasts herself with
older, more passive daughter representations. Furthermore, upon discovering political
corruption, Lisa does not quietly revert to her safe and positive speech, but
instead draws upon her intelligence and principles to make a more effective presentation.
She hollers, "The city of Washington was built on a stagnant swamp some 200
years ago and very little has changed; it stank then and it stinks now. Only today,
it is the fetid stench of corruption that hangs in the air," (Steiger, 8).
Lisa demands an end to the "fetid stench of corruption" in the middle
of an optimist speech competition, an act of defiance and intellectual activism
not seen in Princess, who will forever be too concerned with superficial details
to reach this level of social maturity.

Moreover, Lisa is the "new daughter" because, besides displaying her
intelligence and political activism, Lisa expresses sincere insecurities not seen
in television representations of female children in the past. Despite her superb
brainpower, Lisa is referred to as "the unrecognized talent" by her
family, and as "the saddest kid in grade number two," (Steiger, 8).
Not only does her family ignore her exceptional talents, she is a social outcast
and knows it. Her self-consciousness makes Lisa a "real" child, one
that children across the country can relate to since many children have experienced
similar insecurities. As Yeardley Smith, who supplies Lisa's voice, explains,
"I can relate better to Lisa Simpson than to my character on 'Herman's Head'
even though Lisa's a cartoon," (Richmond, 2). Smith sees Lisa as more real
than the live action character she portrays, exemplifying Lisa's status as the
American family's real daughter.

As with Marge, Lisa also reflects certain female domesticating realities that
she cannot escape from. While Lisa redeems Bart by buying back his soul and helping
him through his crisis, she is also, in doing so, demonstrating just how much
she must always care for him. In that respect, she reflects the male-dominated
family and the female role as the passive supporter to the ruling male figure.
Like Marge, she also reflects the traditional view that family members always
thoroughly love one another. She is never too angry with Bart to eventually retain
and manifest her love for him. Similarly, with all of Bart's antics, Lisa's status
as an "unrecognized talent" takes on a new meaning because she is many
times ignored not simply to bring out her insecurities but also because others,
from family members to townsfolk, focus on the louder and more rambunctious Bart.
By being ignored, Lisa could possibly be demonstrating how the show cannot totally
escape the image of the female as a person in the background and as less significant
than the male family leaders. Thus, Lisa's representation of both rebellion and
tradition in the female role denotes viewers' desires for a balance between realism
and fantasy in a television family's depiction, suggesting why The Simpsons remains
such a popular program among TV viewers.

When studied separately, Homer, Marge, Bart, and Lisa each exhibit characteristics
not seen by past familial units in other shows, thus propagating new and attainable
models for viewers on how to live their lives. When studied as a family unit,
the Simpsons pull the traits of each character into a coherent whole that families
across the country can appreciate and believe in. As James L. Brooks once said,
the Simpson family represents "the normal American family in all its beauty
and horror," (Kaufman, 108). The Simpson's may have some horrible individual
traits, from Homer's idiocy to Bart's rebelliousness, but their imperfections
make them beautiful because no family can truly function as ideally as the Andersons
or the Cleavers. The Simpsons, despite all their faults, still retain the truly
great qualities of family. As outlined by Richard Corliss, "they stick with
one another through thick and thin," and "they have heart that reveal[s]
the bedrock fondness, desperation and loyalty that bond this or any other frazzled
clan," (Corliss, 77). Their cohesiveness, demonstrated by how Marge remains
true to Homer despite his foolishness in "A Streetcar Named Marge,"
and their love, exemplified by Lisa's caring for Bart in "Bart Sells His
Soul," are the defining characteristics of this family.

This cohesiveness also seals the show's fate as ultimately reverting to traditional
sitcom representations of family. The Simpson family cannot completely escape
the stereotypes defined by shows like Father Knows Best or Leave It To Beaver.
Every character must struggle in the male-dominated family structure, a family
trademark that can be traced back to the older, more traditional shows. Marge
always redeems Homer despite his idiocy; Lisa always comes through to help Bart
after he commits a transgression. The family members perpetually love one another
and never experience anger towards another for a significant amount of time. By
retaining some elements of older family sitcoms, The Simpsons presents a more
balanced view of what an American family can be, while still keeping some idealized
visions of what a nuclear family should strive to become.

This balance between idealism and rebellion demonstrates the show's final presentation
of the American nuclear family. As Corliss states, it is the Simpsons "fondness,
desperation, and loyalty" that also bonds any other family, which explains
why so many families, including my own, are so drawn to the show. After all, many
studies have underlined the overall unreality of the television family and viewer
dissatisfaction with such representations (Stewart, 57). Besides appealing to
viewers with individual realism, like Homer's dual characteristics of idiocy and
caring, The Simpsons appeals to viewers because, as Dr. Will Miller explains,
they see "a cracked-mirror version of their own families in the Simpsons,"
(Aucoin, C1). People like those in my family watch the Simpson family functioning
and can identify with many of their daily troubles while concurrently laugh at
them. The Simpson family is not perfect and makes no pretense at being perfect.
Each family member's imperfections, and the family's collective imperfections,
make the Simpson's an ideal television family that everyone can emulate, love,
and understand. Likewise, through their reversions to sitcom family tradition,
the Simpson's reflect how a television show cannot completely distance itself
from established familial images; family satire can only go so far until the voice
of tradition steps in to retain certain qualities that have not been dismissed
from society. Nevertheless, The Simpson's are, despite their two-dimensional,
four-fingered existences, the present and hopeful American nuclear family, "a
cracked-mirror version" of our own imperfect but lovable selves. D'oh!

ENDNOTES

[1] Maggie, the youngest child in the family, will not be covered because she
plays a complementary role to the other family characters and does not present
different angles on the family that other characters cannot reflect.